Lights, cones, arches, mirrors, wood pieces … that’s what this Christmas block center is all about. Children use their fine and large motor muscles while constructing pieces out of the blocks and loose parts. While it might look like a lot of pieces, it’s a rather simple set up that encourages being creative as pieces are put together. But other pieces, like what I am going to show you today, are brought in for two weeks....
Inside: Easy art tips for toddlers that work well at home or in the classroom. Like everything else, I’ve paid close attention to what type of art works well with toddlers, how to set the area up, and how to keep a handle on the mess. I will be upfront with you: I am okay with mess. I actually delight in seeing a toddler’s little fingers dipping into the paint, smearing it across the paper....
Preschool Hand Strengthening Activity Using Droppers Eventually they will start to use a modified tripod grasp. We most recently used pipettes with shamrocks, but we’ve also used them while making watercolor leaves, colorful waterfalls, and salt and watercolor painting. Every single time we use these nifty tools with our preschoolers, the activity is loved. I bought some pipettes that day at her workshop and have been using them ever since. Note: This activity can also be done with older toddlers who have strong fine motor skills....
Inside: Ready to make a snowman craft with preschoolers? We worked on fine motor skills while working with pom poms and other small pieces. The result was a village of snowmen to go with our winter theme! Our first theme when we return from winter break is snow and ice. That includes snowmen, of course! I happened to find some cute little black hats that fit our pom pom snowmen perfectly....
There’s something about squeezing paint onto paper, putting on the lid, and making the spinner move quickly. You can use this technique any time of the year, just changing the shape of the paper. Here are some favorites: Spin Art Spiders Rainbow Spin Art Easter Egg Spin Art Once children are shown how to work the salad spinner, they won’t want to stop. It’s that fun! We like to kick off fall with the apple theme....
Once the glue is applied, let the children select what color tissue paper circle they want and have them press it onto the glue. Add a bit more glue to the top of the tissue paper circle for the eyes and beak. Add the feet to the bottom of the circle. (Although many of our preschoolers wanted the feet on the circle, or below the circle but not touching. I did not correct them, and I certainly did not rearrange them....
Whether you are a teacher in a classroom or a parent who is homeschooling, this collection of preschool winter ideas is perfect for the ice and snow theme. Each activity builds important skills such as fine and gross motor, science, color recognition, math, and more! Make sure to scroll down to grab the free winter printables, too! Snow and Ice Art Alphabet Snowmen: Children are exposed to the alphabet while creating snowmen....
Looking for more? Here you go: Favorite Spring Sensory Bins Rubber ducks in a bubble bath? In the sensory bin? Oh yes, that’s exactly what our toddlers and preschoolers enjoyed with our 10 rubber ducks sensory play. Sounds perfect for spring, right? But this water activity also connected to one of our favorite books, 10 Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle. While listening to the story, we see how rubber ducks are made in a factory and loaded onto a freighter....
And then, when finished with their exams, they got treats. Toddlers and preschoolers love to talk about pets, either in their own homes or in the homes of friends and other family members. One of our spring themes each year involves pets, and the highlight is a veterinarian center! In this center the children take phone calls, fill out forms, check x-rays, and use tools from our medical kits to help dogs, cats, birds, bunnies … and many more types of pets....
Inside: This compilation of preschool space activities adds 15 out-of-this-world science fun that your kids will love! Adding a space theme to your preschool classroom adds so much possibility for creativity and imagination. As new information about our universe is being discovered all the time, this category is constantly growing. If you’ve been a teacher for long enough, you’ll remember once teaching that Pluto was a planet- what a throwback!...
Right before winter break, when we’ve already completed our special Christmas crafts, I am ready for something easy and fun for my students. Hello, Christmas collage art! I’m not the neatest while wrapping gifts and leave scraps of paper all over my office. As I was finally collecting everything, ready to take it to the recycling bin, it dawned on me that I could use some of it for an art activity....
My students love the light table, and if you watch my Instagram stories and my YouTube videos, you will see how it is used every single day of the school year. So, when our preschool acquired an overhead projector, I wondered if it would be loved as much as the light table. In fact, it took me awhile to introduce the overhead projector because I honestly didn’t think it would be much of a hit....
Recently one of my readers messaged me asking about favorite preschool books. And so, I posted this question on my Facebook page and got lots of wonderful responses. I’m sharing them today, along with some articles supporting the importance of reading aloud to children. And while these were put together with the teacher in mind, they are also favorites for home! Favorite Preschool Books for Your Classroom Library The Very Hungry Caterpillar A hungry caterpillar eats his way through a large quantity of various foods until he’s finally full....
During December we make several ornaments for our preschool families. We love handmade gift wrap, so another activity in December is making gift bags. After all, if you are going to give someone something you made, isn’t it even more special when it’s delivered in handmade wrap? We think so! This Christmas wrap is super easy and can be adapted for toddlers as well. Simply find some of those colored paper lunch sacks (red or green is so festive) and choose how to decorate them....
Inside: This preschool sunflower sensory table is easy to make using dyed rice, terra cotta pots, and pretend sunflowers. Perfect during the fall while harvesting real sunflowers! When exploring sunflowers in preschool, we put together a cheerful sensory table with some lemon scent. We added black beans as a contrast to the yellow scented rice and added terra cotta pots with scoops to fill. We also read books about sunflowers, created sunflower art, and planted real sunflowers to take home and nurture....
If you are looking for activities to go with the gingerbread theme, you’ve got to try this easy gingerbread art. Ditch the paintbrushes and use golf balls! Wait, what? Golf balls? Yep! Our 2 and 3 year olds had so much fun using this method when painting farm pigs that I knew we had to do it again. 👉 I’ve created a free gingerbread printable you can use with this activity!...
After our preschool visited the farm, we set up our dramatic play area as a pumpkin stand. Our dramatic play area is part of our every day learning centers in both our toddler and preschool classes. We change the props every one to two weeks, sometimes leaving it up longer if we see the children have a great interest in it. Our pumpkin stand was very meaningful because it was a recent part of their real-life experiences....
Inside: These preschool fall lesson plans are easy to use, with hands-on activities that build a variety of important skills! Includes 24 preschool learning activities and free printables. You can easily put together a fall preschool curriculum with these lesson plans! We’ve put together this thematic unit that is filled with literature-based activities that are easy and fun! These fall theme lesson plans contain 20+ engaging activities that are based on play....
We love to explore colors in March during our rainbow theme! I always have way more planned that we ever have time for, but this year I made sure to include a fun light table activity that included rainbow cones and accessories that were given to me from Open Play Toys. We had already tested these cones in our block area the month prior, so I knew they’d be a big hit on the light table....
Inside: Download these free turkey printables for a fun preschool Thanksgiving circle time activity! We love adding turkey activities to our Thanksgiving theme. We’ve worked on color recognition with our turkey feathers printable, talked about thankfulness while creating colorful turkeys, and worked on letter recognition with our turkey alphabet cards. This year I created a couple of turkey printables that can be added to circle time and adapted as a table activity for centers time....
